Post #9728

Your Water Filter Will Clog — The Medieval Sand Filtration System That Purifies Forever Your water filter is slowing down. The ceramic is clogged with sediment. The carbon is saturated. The membrane is fouled. And you're looking at a $50 filter you can't replace. Modern filters assume clean source water. Real-world water has sediment, algae, organic matter. Your filter rated for "thousands of gallons" clogs after a few hundred. Now you need to filter water but your filter is done and you have no replacement. You're back to drinking untreated water or boiling everything, which uses fuel you might not have. Meanwhile, 1,000 years ago, medieval cities were filtering water through sand. Not just any sand — layered sand and gravel beds that purified water continuously for decades without clogging, without replacement parts, without maintenance beyond occasional cleaning of the surface layer. The same system is still used in modern...